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How Did St Augustine Influence Paul

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Saint Augustine was greatly influenced by the teachings of Paul, he drastically changed his life using what he read in those teachings. When Saint Augustine was an adult he had walked into his garden and he prayed, after doing so he was told to pick up and read. “when suddenly I heard the voice of a boy or a girl I know not which--coming from the neighboring house, chanting over and over again, "Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it.”” Book 2: Chapter 12. He then ran over to where he had left the books of Paul and read. “So I quickly returned to the bench where Alypius was sitting, for there I had put down the apostle 's book when I had left there. I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: …show more content…

The Spirit wants to lead us closer to God, where as the flesh wants its own selfish desires. “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” Galatians 5:17 (NIV) “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21.

Early on in Saint Augustines life he had acted on the sins of the flesh. He talked about how when he was younger that he had stolen pears from a pear tree for no reason other than the pleasure he found in stealing. “We carried off a huge load of pears, not to eat ourselves, but to dump out to the hogs, after barely tasting some of them ourselves. Doing this pleased us all the more because it was forbidden.” Book 2: Chapter 4. “I stole those simply that I might steal, for, having stolen them, I threw them away. My sole gratification in them was my own sin” Book 2: Chapter 6. Saint Augustine had resented these

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